


ten-minute drive

by kurokn



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Car Accidents, Crying, Hospitals, M/M, cw: blood, sorry daichi, sorry everyone, sorry suga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 15:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6381757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurokn/pseuds/kurokn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to just be a quick trip home from campus, but now here they are, car steaming as it sits wrapped around the trunk of an old tree less than two minutes from home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ten-minute drive

It was just a ten-minute drive home.

It was supposed to just be a quick trip home from campus, but now here they are, car steaming as it sits wrapped around the trunk of an old tree less than two minutes from home. Daichi’s stereo is somehow still working, so the first thing he hears once he gets over the initial shock of the crash is a song playing from Koushi’s phone. Bits of shattered windshield dance on the dashboard with the force of the bass.

Koushi.

His hand is still clutched in Daichi’s, but he isn’t saying anything, and he isn’t moving, either. When Daichi looks over at him, head throbbing, his heart stutters in his chest.

Nobody should bleed that much. Koushi’s window is shattered, too; his side of the car took the full force of hitting the tree and his door is caved inward against his side. His head is sagging forward, mouth hanging open, and a spot of blood works its way down his chin from his mouth.

Tires screeching against the pavement draw Daichi’s attention away for a moment, and he barely catches a flash of color as the reckless driver who caused this speeds around a corner shrouded by more trees. It fills him with seething anger, and he turns back to his fiancée with a grimace.

“Koushi?” he asks, squeezing his hand to no response. “Babe, can you hear me?”

Daichi leans forward and feels a painful pull in his neck—likely whiplash—as he tries to look at Koushi’s face head-on. What he can see from his angle doesn’t comfort him in the slightest; the glass shards vary in size, sticking into Koushi’s skin with some larger pieces worryingly close to where Daichi thinks the jugular is. He can see the blood drying in some places, but it’s still flowing freely in others, and that concerns him.

Where’s his phone?! He could’ve sworn it was in his shirt pocket, but he can’t find it now. His eyes catch on Koushi’s resting in the cup holder, though, and he quickly dials emergency services with his hand still holding Koushi’s.

As he’s telling the operator where they are and what happened, he can feel himself growing faint. When he reaches up to touch his forehead, his fingers come away covered in blood, and he mentions as much before everything fades to black.

☆

Daichi’s fine.

Sure, he has one hell of a concussion and a couple bruised ribs, but he’s mostly okay.  He wakes up while in the ambulance on the way to the emergency room, and he’s discharged after a short couple of hours with a near-perfect bill of health under Iwaizumi’s care, told to go home and rest.

That’s impossible, though, because Koushi’s in far worse shape and the nurses won’t let him check on him.

“I’m sorry, Sawamura-san, but I can’t let you go back there. You’re not a listed family member.”

Daichi wants to cry—in fact, that probably explains the wet feeling on his cheeks and the tight feeling in his throat. Iwaizumi stands to the side, looking unsure of what to do.

“He’s my fiancée!” he pleads, wiping the tears away, “I don’t want him to be alone.”

He can see the torn look on the nurse’s face, and he watches as she flips through a binder by her computer. She bites her lip as she carefully scans some information before looking back up.

“I’m really sorry, but unless listed family allow you to see him, I can’t do anything.”

It makes his heart break; Koushi’s parents aren’t a part of his life anymore, having essentially disowned him when he said he wouldn’t break up with Daichi and return to a more conservative lifestyle. Neither of the young men had seen them in years.

“Daichi…” Iwaizumi starts, resting a hand on his shoulder, “come sit with me, okay?”

He can’t say anything, but he turns away from the counter with a nod and lets his friend lead him to one of the stiff couches in the waiting area. They sit down heavily, and the dam inside Daichi breaks as he fully realizes the weight of his situation. When tears start rushing hotly down his face again, Iwaizumi pulls him into a tight hug, apologizing when Daichi hisses at the constriction on his ribs.

“What am I supposed to do?” he chokes out, face buried in his friend’s shoulder. “I can’t leave him here alone. I can’t do that, Iwaizumi, I just can’t.”

“I’ve told you to call me Hajime,” he begins, obviously trying to lighten the mood, “and here’s what we’re going to do for now: I’m going to get Tooru to pick up your pain meds, because you will want them soon, and some food. Don’t look at me like that; you will eat something. After that, we’re going to exploit his manipulative tendencies to find you a loophole. Now, where’s the scrip for your meds? He should be here soon.”

Daichi fishes it out of the folder his doctor gave him upon discharge nearly an hour ago, handing it over. Hajime looks it over with a whistle.

“Man, they’re giving you the good stuff.”

It gets a chuckle out of Daichi, and even if it’s barely audible, it still makes Hajime look relieved.

☆

The nurses still aren’t budging, and Daichi doesn’t know what to do.

Daichi’s trying to be reasonable, but it’s kind of hard when he can’t convince them that he and Koushi are really going to get married—not knowing when he’ll get to see his fiancée again is really doing a number on his emotional state. Tooru hadn’t even dared to lightly joke about his appearance when he stopped by and later returned with his food and meds.

Tooru has barely spent any time sitting with them since he’s arrived—his extroverted personality and need to be moving made him very willing and able to accept Hajime’s challenge, and he’s off in some far corner talking to administrative staff or somesuch about what they can do. When he finally sits down, it’s been more than half an hour. He reaches for the paper bag and pulls out his food, Hajime looking at the now cooled-off contents with judgment.

Daichi rubs his temples, and his anxiety makes it difficult for him to swallow the pill Hajime promptly hands him. It starts to dissolve in his mouth with an overpowering bitter taste, and he finally decides _fuck it, it’s probably fine_ and chews it, grimacing as he washes it down with the fancy coffee Tooru bought him. Hajime catches him and hits him over the head with a chuckle.

“You’re not supposed to chew them like candy.”

“Wow, you’re sure learning a lot in pre-med, huh?” Tooru teases. “Let him live, Hajime.”

It’s not until the words are out that he realizes his poor choice of phrasing, and Daichi looks down at his lap, breathing shakily.

“Oh, shit, Daicchan—“ he scrambles, “I’m really sorry.”

“I heard them rushing him into surgery,” Daichi whispers, “He was bleeding so much, oh my god.”

Hajime rubs his back, ever comforting, but remains silent.

It was just a ten-minute drive home, but here they sit in the waiting room, having no idea if Koushi is even alive.

☆

It takes until well after 11 PM before Hajime and Tooru are able to bodily drag Daichi away from the hospital.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t do anything right now, and you’re injured, too. You need to actually sleep in an actual bed.” Hajime tells him, pushing him into the backseat with Tooru.

The crickets chirping around the hospital mark Daichi’s mental state. He stares back dumbly.

“Remember what that secretary said earlier,” Tooru says. “If you get there early tomorrow and talk to someone named Ukai about the situation and somehow prove yourself, they might be able to make an exception.”

Daichi feels his bottom lip wobbling, and he whispers a barely-there “thank you” to the both of them.

“Okay,” Hajime says awkwardly, buckling his seatbelt. He starts the car and heads for the exit, and Daichi keeps the anxiety of being back in a car so soon to himself. When they get to Hajime and Tooru’s small house, they make him take a hot shower and then force him to take their bed. It’s soft and incredibly comfortable, but without Koushi there, it takes him a long time to actually fall asleep.

☆

Daichi finds himself sitting in a dingy, cramped office at 8:30 the next morning. Hajime and Tooru are waiting in the hallway, and he wrings his hands as the grumpy man in front of him scrubs at his eyes as his computer starts up.

“So, your fiancée is here?” he begins, typing into a form.

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s not necessary, kid. I know this whole process is ridiculous.” He types something else into the form, moving to a new section. “Really, if you can show something like an engagement announcement or something they should be able to clear you themselves. These questions might get a bit invasive, so sorry about that in advance.”

Daichi nods solemnly.

“Now, does your fiancée have living immediate family members?”

He grimaces and settles back in his pleather chair, prepared to answer any personal question if it’ll be enough for the hospital to let him go upstairs.

☆

“He said it’ll be a couple of hours for him to track down people for signatures, but after that he can add me to Koushi’s list of family members.”

“That’s good news!” Tooru says with a smile. Hajime nods in agreement.

“Okay,” Daichi says, feeling invigorated by the update. “I’m going to get more coffee.”

But when he moves to stand, Hajime grips his shoulder and pushes down. “No, you’ve had enough. You see that long couch over there?”

Daichi spots it, empty and inviting. He fights down an exhausted yawn.

“Take this ridiculous blanket that Tooru insisted on bringing and sleep. I’ll wake you up in a little while.” He throws a plush wad of cartoon aliens at Daichi with a resolute look in his eye, ignoring Tooru’s vehement defense of his blanket.

This couch isn’t that soft, either, but his body sinks in slowly as air is pushed out of the cheap cushions. The blanket is pretty large once unfolded, and he wraps up in it, facing the back of the couch. He falls asleep thankful for his friends.

☆

“Daicchan, wake up. Ukai-san’s supposed to get you approved soon.”

With that, his eyes jump open. He feels sore from sleeping on the couch, and when he turns to face Tooru, he finds himself a bit too close to the cushions’ edge. He falls to the ground with an undignified “oof.”

“What? When?”

“He’ll be here in just a minute. He called your phone and Hajime answered, so we’re just waiting now.”

It feels like it’s too soon and overdue all at once. Daichi’s heart takes off thundering in his chest as it catches up to him—he’s going to find out about Koushi soon. Finally, after all these hours in the dark. He’s relieved, but he’s also terrified of what he might hear.

Ukai-san shows up a minute later, bleached hair pulled back into a tiny ponytail. He hands Daichi a stack of paperwork.

“Nobody should give you any shit now,” he starts. “Sugawara-san’s in room 1020. The elevators are back that way.”

He disappears as quickly as he’d arrived, a figurative paperwork fairy godmother.

Daichi honestly can’t remember if he says anything before turning in the direction that Ukai pointed their little group off in, and everything that isn’t either a map or a room number fades to the recesses of Daichi’s awareness. They have to take the elevator up a few floors, and then they’re confronted with a very different environment. His blood runs cold when he realizes they’re in the ICU.

_It’s eerily quiet up here,_ Daichi muses, and he takes off down the hallway with his friends close behind. _Room 1020,_ he chants mentally, _he’s in room 1020._

He falters at room 1018, breath stuttering in his chest. Hajime urges him forward with solidarity. At 1019, he thinks he might be sick.

At 1020, he has to stop to collect himself.

“We’ll be out here,” Hajime says. Tooru’s bottom lip is wobbling, and he pulls Daichi into a tight hug without a word. When he pulls back, he just nods and steers him toward the door. Daichi uses the hand sanitizer by the door and walks into the dark, afraid of what he’s about to see.

He can hear the beeps, see the soft light coming from the machines at the head of Koushi’s bed. They drown out everything else for a moment, but once his eyes adjust, he gasps.

Koushi is almost as pale as the sheets he’s laying on. His right side bears the weight of his injuries, covered in still-fresh cuts from the glass. Some on his neck were apparently as deep as they looked, because Daichi can see stitches, and an area near his jaw is sealed under gauze. His arm is in a cast, his neck in a brace, and there’s a bit of blood still matted in his hair.

Daichi sinks into the chair by the bed and takes his fiancée’s uninjured hand. His fingers are as cold as always, but it feels more eerie now with him lying here unmoving. Everything about this is wrong.

He jumps when his phone dings in his pocket.

**Hajime** ****  
_Hey, we’re going to get food._ _  
_ _Yakisoba work for you?_

**You** **  
** _Yeah, thank you_

They return a little while later with containers of hot food, handing a large box to Daichi. Koushi is silent and unmoving as they eat, not chastising Daichi for shoveling the food into his mouth or laughing at Tooru’s awful puns. Their conversation slowly tapers off as Daichi finds less and less things to contribute, and he tries to ignore his friends’ interlocked fingers as he slurps back the last of his food.

Hajime and Tooru leave later, patting Daichi on the shoulder and telling him to get some rest when they realize that he isn’t budging. He doesn’t make any promises, and he doesn’t text Hajime back once they’ve gotten home. Sleep only comes when he passes out shortly after 2, slumped over Koushi’s bed with their fingers intertwined.

It was just a ten-minute drive home, so why are they here?

☆

The doctors are keeping Koushi in a drug-induced coma to let him heal. It shouldn’t be longer than a couple days, but Daichi hates it all the same. Seeing Koushi like this is unnerving, and it’s driving him insane. Being under heavy anesthesia doesn’t stop Koushi from opening his eyes and mumbling every once in a while, and every time it happens Daichi thinks he’s really waking up.

He never is.

Hajime eventually gets fed-up with being ignored and drops by to make Daichi eat.

“Get up,” he says, poking into the room, “you’re coming with me.”

“But—“

“Nope, I don’t want to hear it. You’re going to come to the cafeteria and eat some shitty hospital food with me.”

“But Koushi is—“

“Still under heavy anesthesia meant to keep him unconscious. He’s not going to wake up alone while we’re gone, okay? You need to get out of this room.”

Daichi goes grudgingly, dragging his feet as he walks alongside Hajime in silence. They’re waiting on the elevator when there’s a beep over the intercom.

_“Code blue. Code blue in room 1022. Code blue in room 1022.”_

Daichi stops in his tracks, eyes wide as he looks down the hallway. Nurses and doctors rush past, pushing carts and carrying bags of equipment.

“Not Sugawara, okay? It’s not Sugawara.”

He nods, not making eye contact. It’s not Koushi, and he gets on the elevator when the doors open a moment later.

The cafeteria is loud, and Daichi rushes through the line, getting a sandwich, banana, and coffee. The noise is bordering on too much for him, and he practically inhales the food. He hopes that the sooner he’s done eating, the sooner they can leave, but Hajime seems perfectly content to take his time working through his meal. Daichi bounces his leg as he drinks his coffee.

“So, when are they taking him off the hard stuff?”

“In the morning,” Daichi says in between gulps, “He keeps opening his eyes. It’s so weird.”

“Has he said anything? I’ve heard that that can happen.”

“No, he just mumbles sometimes.”

They sit in silence for a moment as Hajime finishes his tofu. Daichi’s mug of coffee is empty, so he sits and tries to patiently wait for his friend to be done. He practically groans in relief when Hajime takes his last bite.

Their silence as they go back to Koushi’s room is comfortable, and Hajime hangs around for a while before he goes home to Tooru, telling Daichi that he _will_ show up again is he fails to respond to his texts.

Daichi sleeps in the hospital room again, and a nurse brings him an extra blanket sometime in the middle of the night.

☆

Due to some unforeseen complications, the doctors extend Koushi’s drug-induced coma by one more day. Daichi is confused and upset, and even though he did ask why, he’d be hard-pressed to recall what he’d been told. All he knows for sure is that it’ll be another day before Koushi wakes up and they find out if he’s really okay.

When he tells Hajime as much over text, he and Tooru show up within the hour to keep him company. Tooru brings his laptop and some movies, and they pull their chairs together to huddle in close and watch them together. It’s a welcome distraction, and they watch two movies before Tooru is yawning and stretching. Hajime turns to face Daichi.

“Hey, why don’t you sleep at home tonight? You said they’re going to wait to wake him up until you’re here, right?”

Daichi shifts uncomfortably. “I don’t want to… He shouldn’t…”

“Daicchan, he’d want to you take care of yourself,” Tooru says, slipping his laptop back into his backpack.

“He’s right.”

It’s uncomfortable, going from the mom friend to the mothered friend. He looks back to Koushi again.

“I can have you back here by 8:00 in the morning,” Hajime bargains.

“Okay.”

Daichi knows they’re right, and he gathers his stuff. They drive in relative silence, the radio’s volume low, and Daichi takes a moment to get out of the car.

“See you in the morning,” he says, leaning down to speak through the open window.

“See you,” Hajime replies. Tooru is asleep in the backseat, so he doesn’t say anything. Their car pulls away from the curb and Daichi heads up to his and Koushi’s apartment by himself.

He’s meaning to go to sleep, he really is, but he looks at their empty bed and just can’t do it. The thought of sleeping in their bed alone while Koushi is in the hospital makes him feel vaguely sick, and he turns back to the kitchen instead. There are some dishes in need of washing, and he can take care of that for now.

He scrubs each pot, bowl, plate, and fork with intensity, leaving them to dry on the rack by the sink. He wipes down the counters, mops the floor, and then puts the now-dry dishes away. When he slips putting a glass back in the cabinet it drops to the floor, it shatters and spreads out over the floor. A few shards pierce the tops of his feet, and as they slowly turn red, he remembers the image of Koushi slumped forward in the passenger seat. His eyes blur with hot tears and he sobs as he sweeps up the glass, pulling it out of his feet and disinfecting the cuts.

The kitchen isn’t enough to wear him out. He moves on to the living room. There isn’t that much to do in there, but he folds the blankets and wipes down the coffee table until it shines. He also scrubs their toilet and bathroom sink, slowly running out of energy as he scrubs the bathtub, and he trudges out to the living room after pulling the comforter off of their bed and wrapping himself up in it.

Daichi falls onto the couch with a defeated sigh, pulling the comforter up around his face to breathe in Koushi’s scent.

It was just a ten-minute drive home.

☆

Hajime bangs on his door at 7:15 the next morning, and Daichi answers within seconds.

“We brought food,” Hajime says, shouldering past Daichi with Tooru in tow. “We can leave after you eat.”

It’s too early for this. Daichi only managed to sleep for a few hours before he woke up crying—in his nightmare, Koushi was killed upon impact and only taken to the hospital to be declared dead. After he woke up at around 5 in a cold sweat, he wasn’t able to go back to sleep, and he’d been ready for over an hour. Even the thought of food makes him feel sick to his stomach.

Hajime sees the look on his face and sighs, sliding him a fat breakfast burrito anyway.

“At least try to eat.”

Daichi is able to force down half before he quits, wrapping it back up in the foil and putting it in the fridge. He might be glad to have it later. It’s around 7:30 and Hajime relents, throwing away their trash and leading the way to his car.

Tooru plugs his phone in to play music on the now-familiar drive back to the hospital, and Daichi remembers shattered glass and Koushi’s bloodied face.

☆

“Okay,” the doctor says, standing by the foot of Koushi’s bed, “we just took him off the medication, but it might still take him a while to wake up. If you want a few minutes to yourselves when that happens, that’s perfectly fine, but we’ll need to come check on him.”

Daichi listens and nods solemnly, back in his position beside the bed with Koushi’s hand in his. He watches as the doctor makes some final notes on Koushi’s chart before smiling up at him.

“I know it might not seem like it, but he was actually pretty lucky, considering the circumstances. He should make a near-full recovery.”

She sweeps out of the room without another word, leaving Daichi to ponder what she meant by “near-full recovery.” It sits uncomfortably in his chest, pressing on him as he squeezes Koushi’s hand. They’ll be fine.

☆

Hajime texts him between classes to ask how things are going, and all he can muster is _“He’s not awake yet. It’s been 4 hours.”_ His friend assures him that that’s normal and everything’s probably fine.

He should make a near-full recovery. Everything’s probably fine. They sound optimistic, but Daichi doesn’t want any more uncertainty when it comes to Koushi’s life. His fingers are still ice-cold, but they’re twitching as he comes out from being under for so long, and every time they squeeze around Daichi’s, his heart leaps up into his throat.

When Koushi starts making little noises and scrunching up his face, Daichi can’t look away.

“Koushi?”

Daichi can’t tell if that was an actual “mhm” or if he imagined it, but Koushi’s grasp is more firm and consistent, and he’s starting to shift around in his bed.

“Hey, babe, can you hear me?”

“Dai…” he whispers, barely there, and Daichi is overwhelmed with relief. “Daichi?”

Koushi’s eyes finally open. He squints at the bright light from the window and the ceiling and Daichi laughs wetly, wiping away the happy tears as Koushi gets his bearings.

“Hey,” he says, unable to hide his delighted smile, “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got hit by a car.”

Daichi sniffles and laughs, squeezing his hand. “Well, that makes sense.”

“Are you crying?!” Koushi reaches up to cup Daichi’s face. “Hey, it’s okay… How long was I asleep?”

“A few days. They kept you under. I don’t remember why, sorry.”

“Oh, wow.”

They sit in the mid-day sunlight, happy to just be together. Koushi scoots over with some difficulty, patting the bed and basically demanding for Daichi to join him. It’s an easy request to fulfill, having missed this for days, and Daichi snuggles up against his side without a second thought. They fall asleep curled around each other, as it should be, and Daichi gets the best sleep he’s gotten in days.

☆

Koushi is finally discharged on Friday afternoon, ribs bruised and lasting pain in his shoulder a near-guarantee. Hajime and Tooru drive them home happily, bringing food from their favorite take-out place to celebrate, and Daichi insists on carrying Koushi over the threshold like they’ve just been married instead of simply actually making the drive home in one piece.

With their friends sitting in their living room slurping back take-out noodles and laughing at Koushi’s awful puns, it feels like the shattered pieces of their life are falling back into place.

It was just a ten-minute drive home, and things are starting to feel okay again.

 

**Author's Note:**

> @ ascending sin: thanks for dealing with me dropping lines of this in the chat all weekend. you're all troopers and deserve smut tailored exactly to your tastes (wink wink).  
> also: shoutout to darien [cozykoushi](http://archiveofourown.org/users/cozykoushi/pseuds/cozykoushi) (same username on tumblr) for betaing this at speeds approaching the sound barrier. i love you, darien. no romo. ♡


End file.
